Who We Are

Our intention is to inform people of racist, homophobic, religious extreme hate speech perpetrators across social networking internet sites. And we also aim to be a focal point for people to access information and resources to report such perpetrators to appropriate web sites, governmental departments and law enforcement agencies around the world.

We will also post relevant news worthy items and information on Human rights issues, racism, extremist individuals and groups and far right political parties from around the world although predominantly Britain.

Friday, 31 December 2010

The rabbi who spoke at an English Defence League rally two months ago has apparently challenged Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks to a televised BBC debate on "Is Islam a religion of peace?"

Californian Nachum Shifren was the speaker at the far-right group's October rally outside the Israeli Embassy.

He called Muslims "dogs" and criticised British community leaders and rabbis for speaking out against him, saying: "To all my Jewish brothers who have called me a Nazi… I say to them they don't have the guts to stand up here and take care of business."

Now Rabbi Shifren, who lost a bid for a Californian state senate seat, claims he is planning a TV debate with the Chief Rabbi on "the Islamification of Britain, cultural Marxism in western liberalism, multiculturalism and its effect on the host society".

In an email seen by the JC, Rabbi Shifren says he has set rules for the debate structure, to be followed by the Chief Rabbi and the BBC - despite no known interest in such a programme from either party.

He demands that the debate should not be moderated or edited, with no "extraneous commentary." He adds: "The programme should not be advertised or announced using such inflammatory labelling as 'far-right 'extremist.' i.e. not served up in terms that suit the Marxist-Islamist agenda of the BBC.

"This is strictly a bout between two combatants from which the listener and viewer may draw their own conclusions." He also requests that no audience be present at the debate to avoid "Trotskyist structures."

Thursday, 30 December 2010

Two cash-strapped German far-right parties said on Thursday that they have agreed to merge ahead of an election-heavy year when voters in seven of the country's 16 states go to the polls.

The German National Democratic Party (NPD) and the smaller German People's Union (DVU) said that their leaders had signed an agreement on Wednesday creating the new party, "NPD - The People's Union", from January 1.

"What we have achieved is the creation of one strong and unified right-wing party," NPD leader Matthias Faust said in a statement.

"The election in Saxony-Anhalt (in eastern Germany) in March will show that it will be easier in future to bring national policies into (state) parliaments.

"The subsequent domino effect will bring further successes for the national opposition."

Earlier this year Germany became engulfed in a debate about immigration sparked by a book by a central banker who said Europe's biggest economy was being made "more stupid" by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants.

NPD officials welcomed the book, which became a best-seller. Polls showed considerable sympathy for some of its arguments, leading to fears that a populist party with a charismatic leader could win considerable support.

But neither the NPD nor the DVU, which have been beset by major financial problems and falling membership, have appeared to benefit and neither party has ever had any seats in the federal parliament.

The NPD, formed in 1964, has six seats in the regional parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and eight in Saxony, both in the depressed former communist east of the country where unemployment and poverty rates are high.

The DVU, created by millionaire Gerhard Frey in 1971, has one seat in the parliament of the western city state of Bremen. It says it has around 4,000 members while the NPD was estimated in 2009 to have 6,000-7,000.

Voters go the polls in Hamburg in February, in Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in March, in Bremen in May and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin in September.

The pictures were taken in 2008 but have just now come to light. One was a picture of at least seven youths lined up on a balcony giving the salute during a week-long holiday in the Austrian town of Wagrain, near Salzburg.

A second picture, from the camp in Coesfelder, Recklinghausen, shows several older youths, two of whom were camp leaders, giving the salute.

“It will certainly have severe consequences,” Dehling said. “Nothing is being swept under the carpet here. We immediately went on the offensive, asked the youths and their parents come in here and had a talk with them.”

Dehling insisted there was not an ingrained Nazi problem in the region’s fire service.

“But it would not be enough just to shrug it all off as a bad joke. We won’t put up with right-wing extremist ideas and we will now explain this to the youths in conversations and lectures.”

Police and state authorities were also involved in educating the youths, he said.

A Polish judge has jailed a Swedish man for two years and eight months for plotting the theft of the "Arbeit macht frei" Auschwitz entrance sign.

Anders Hoegstroem, a former neo-Nazi leader, admitted theft under a plea bargain last month and will be moved to Sweden to serve his sentence.

The infamous sign was stolen in December last year and recovered in three pieces three days later.

The judge in Krakow also jailed two Poles for up to two-and-a-half years.

One of the pair, named as Andrzej S, apologised in court for the offence, Polish media report.

The 5m (16ft) wrought-iron slogan which translates as "Work sets you free" is a potent symbol of many of the Nazi-era atrocities. During the Nazi Holocaust, 1.1 million people - most of them Jews - were murdered at Auschwitz.

The sign has since been repaired although it now hangs in the Auschwitz museum and has been replaced by a replica at the entrance to the former death camp.

Three other Poles were given prison terms earlier this year for the theft which was thought to have been ordered by another Swede still at large. So far, no evidence of other individuals has come to light.

Hoegstroem, 34, who was detained in Sweden in February had at first denied involvement in stealing the sign but later changed his plea.

On being told the verdict, he said he accepted the court's decision. He is now likely to be returned to Sweden in a week's time.

Tuesday, 28 December 2010

Back in early December, Rafal Gorski, returned to Poland planning never again to return to Scotland. This is because of all of the racist insults and harassment that he had to put up with. He said while simply walking down the street people would yell out, “F***ing Polish, go back to Poland!”

Of course, the taunts are not enough to make everyone leave. However, if the taunts did not scare people, the threats on their lives and the lives of their families do. Many of the Polish people leaving the area said that they simply could not take day-to-day life in Scotland anymore. This has now put Scotland on the map, but for all the wrong reasons.

The real name of Mr Gorskis was changed by the media in order to protect him. Apparently reports showed that he was allegedly abused. Reports suggest that his neighbor, whose name is not being released, took part in the abuse of the Polish family.

One Polish family, who was interviewed after being attacked, said that the couple that attacked them said that they were stealing jobs from the locals. They said that Polish people had no right to be in Scotland, and they should go back to Poland.

Also, two months ago, police in Scotland found graffiti on a bridge that said, “Polish C**ts, Get out of Scotland.” Police statistics show reports of hate crimes against other white people have risen fivefold in Scotland over recent years. Experts say that the hate crimes on Polish people are the main cause of this. A 2008 study found that there was an increase in racial tension in the Highlands. Eastern Europeans were among the most frequently targeted.

Seven years after the German government failed in an attempt to ban a far-right party, calls have become louder for renewed efforts to outlaw a party that is under observation of the federal intelligence agency.

Germany's police union GdP and the Central Council of Jews in Germany have appealed for renewed efforts to ban the National Democratic Party (NPD), a fringe group with no federal-level representation, but with seats in two of Germany's 16 state parliaments. "From my own and a police point of view, I urge and support a ban," police union head Bernhard Witthaut told Deutsche Welle. "I think it's terrible how they mock foreigners living in Germany, I think their concept of a state is terrible." Witthaut was not alone in his comments. The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said in an interview over the weekend that the NPD, which currently has an estimated 7,000 members, had clearly set itself the goal of destroying democracy in Germany. The country must resist such attempts, he said, if necessary by issuing a ban. The head of the Turkish Community in Germany, Kenan Kolat, urged a more consistent prosecution of xenophobic attacks in Germany. Banning the NPD, he told the news agency dapd, could also "have a positive effect in the fight against right-wing extremism and racism." The German government attempted to ban the NPD in a case heard by the country's highest court, the Constitutional Court, in 2001. But the case was thrown out two years later after it was disclosed that several people in the NPD's inner circle were German secret service undercover agents or informants.
Signal in the fight against far-right extremism
The police union's Witthaut said that some people in law enforcement believed it would be easier to deal with the far-right party if you knew how it operated and where it was active, whereas if the party were to go underground, it would be much more difficult to keep an eye on its activities. But he said he was convinced that outlawing a party listed as racist, anti-Semitic and revisionist by Germany's domestic intelligence agency would be "an important signal in the fight against right-wing extremism." "Many might view the risk of a renewed failure before Germany's highest court as such a grave aspect that they might dismiss steps in that direction," Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on Monday. But he added that banning the NPD was desirable, and he would continue to lobby for a ban of the party.

Turkey needs to legally define a category for offenses and crimes that were perpetrated solely due to hatred of an individual or minority group, according to a number of civil society organizations and jurists.

Turkey, not unlike most countries of the world, is not free of crime against minorities and disadvantaged groups. Among these, crimes motivated by bias against the target due to their background or identity are defined as hate crimes. However, the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) does not include such a category. The Social Change Association, in a bid to lobby for creating such a legal category, recently held a rally against hate crimes.

Hate crimes were first included in international criminal law in 2003. Forty-eight Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) members now have legislation that categorizes hate crimes, while eight OSCE members, including Turkey, currently have no such legal description of bias-motivated crimes in their penal codes. “A symbolic message would be given if this is put into law,” says OSCE representative Tankut Soykan, adding, “This will show that such crimes are not tolerated and that they cannot be covered up.”

The Social Change Association and the Initiative to Stop Nationalism have jointly started a campaign under which a number of activities and events will be held in addition to preparing a bill in this direction. A group of jurists are working on the proposed legislation, while the two organizations will also collect signatures for their cause. The campaign started with a two-day symposium organized at the Taksim Hill Hotel on Dec. 17-18.
Hate crime law will send a message

Soykan, the adviser on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims at OSCE, has stated that legal measures alone are not enough to combat hate crimes, stressing that social policy changes are also necessary. He said integrating this definition into legislation would serve more symbolically to highlight that such crimes would never be covered up.

“If you do this, you answer forcefully such crimes as the political mechanism, which would in turn contribute to social awareness on the issue. Such a law would also work to make security forces more active in this regard, and victims will be more aware of how to seek legal remedies,” he said, adding that in other countries special laws made hate crimes punishable more severely in comparison to the same offenses not motivated by bias against the target.

“But you still need more than laws. For example, if you look at Kosovo, it has the world's best anti-hate crime legislation, but you don't see any of that when you look at practice. Creating awareness amongst the public is very important. Increasing people's sensitivity on this issue would be much more effective than amending the law,” he said.

Asuman İnceoğlu, an assistant professor at Bilgi University, says such crimes should be punished with the harshest penalties possible within the confines of criminal law. She stressed that there was no way a judge could hand down a harsher punishment for a crime committed due to bias if this is not defined legally.

“If the perpetrators are not punished, this gives them the message that they can get away with it, which in turn brings about a cycle of crime. This is why harsher sanctions are needed in criminal law for crimes of this type,” she said.

Frankie Boyle has lost a third of his TV audience as he faces a storm over his use of racist language.

The Scots comic launched his controversial Channel 4 series Tramadol Nights to a healthy 1.3 million viewers on November 30. But now he is proving a major turn-off after causing outrage with a string of tasteless gags.

In last week’s show the Sun columnist made a joke at the expense of Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey and upset many by using the words P*** and n*****. Yester-day it emerged his average audience figures were down to 880,000 by December 14.

Bosses fear even more will switch off when the last episode of the six-part series is screened tomorrow. Channel 4 were yesterday unavailable to confirm the figures for his most recent broadcast.

During the show Boyle referred to a bomb wiping out “a whole bunch of P****” and joked about the “Ministry of War” having a “department of n***** bombing”.

Despite a flood of complaints Channel 4 bosses have consistently defended the near-the-knuckle comedian. Chief executive David Abraham insisted last week: “Comedy is very subjective and the intent of these sketches is manifestly satirical.”

But critics were furious. A spokesman for Show Racism the Red Card said: “We condemn the use of racist terminology. It is never acceptable in any context.”

Thursday, 23 December 2010

The resurrection of a website advocating the genocide of Jews and Canadians, founded by a Toronto extremist who is wanted by police, highlights the difficulties of policing the Internet, where public postings can be generated and disseminated from almost anywhere.

The website was founded by Salman Hossain, 25, a Canadian extremist who fled Canada earlier this year during a police investigation into use of the Internet to promote terrorist violence in Canada.

Police subsequently charged him with five hate crimes -- two counts of advocating genocide and three counts of promoting hatred -- but have so far been unable to locate him.

The site was shut down after the charges were laid.

The National Post reported last month that the site had reemerged on a U.S. free-speech server but was again shut down. This month it found a new home, through Internet servers based in Switzerland.

"We are aware that he has a website up and running in various locations," said Inspector Dave Ross of the Ontario Provincial Police. "We are monitoring it and are continuing to liaise with enforcement agencies around the world. We are actively seeking him. We haven't forgotten about him. Our hope is that some day you will see him back in Canada in custody."

The fact that the alleged crimes continue despite his fugitive status shows the difficulties of such cases.

"The Internet poses very unique challenges to law enforcement agencies around the world, not only for hate crimes but a vast number of offences. It has certainly opened the global marketplace to criminals of all types," said Insp. Ross.

Mr. Hossain is wanted by the OPP for advocating genocide and is named in a worldwide Interpol fugitive list. He is believed to have returned to his native Bangladesh and appears to have had technological issues with accessing the Internet.

This month any obstacles were overcome and the website Filthy Jewish Terrorists renewed its stream of violent imagery, language and fierce anti-Jewish and anti-Western sentiments.

"He's never had any concern for the warrant hanging over his head. He is thumbing his nose at Canadian police and at Interpol. The site is up and gotten even more vile," said Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

"It speaks to the ineffectiveness of the law in terms of trying to deal with modern technology. A lot of the law dealing with hate crimes is based on the fact that people are living in Western countries where the law applies. But Salman Hossain left and is clearly living in a place where Western law and Western mores have no meaning and so he is basically free to post whatever he wants.

"I do believe the law will eventually catch up to him. "

One article on the site, listed as having been written by Mr. Hossain and posted Dec. 17, again encourages the killing of Jews and Westerners and expresses hope his articles harm Western society.

"I encourage Iran to get assistance from others in committing a full scale genocide against the Jew run nations of the Western World (Australia, Europe and North America to be more precise). Killing them with bio-genetic weaponry would literally be the best option," it says in part.

Another article, posted on Dec. 18, is entitled: "Learning How To Identify Jews During Roundup Time!"

Despite that type of content, the website offers a "legal disclaimer" that states: "Our web site does not advocate terrorism or genocide against any people. All information on this site is for informational purposes only."

A phone call and email from the National Post to the contact information provided for the site's domain registration in Lucerne, Switzerland, went unanswered yesterday.

The rise of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik Party has ratcheted up debate about anti-Semitism in this country and focused attention on the seeming paradoxes of Jewish life here. On the one hand, a recent article in Germany's Der Spiegel described Budapest as "Europe's capital of anti-Semitism," where Jews are "being openly intimidated" and making plans to leave the country. On the other, Hungary is home to a flourishing and multifaceted Jewish life that finds vigorous public expression in religious, cultural and even culinary ways, and also enjoys high-profile government recognition.

I saw this myself at Chanukah when I munched on latkes at a Friday night oneg Shabbat, sampled doughnuts at a sit-down dinner for Holocaust survivors, joined 20-somethings at a riotous klezmer/hip-hop gig, and just missed witnessing the foreign minister, Budapest's mayor and other VIPs help light a big menorah set up in the center of town. While anti-Semitism remains a serious concern in this central European country, Budapest-based Jewish writer Adam LeBor wrote in the Economist, the Der Spiegel article was a one-sided screed that portrayed the Jewish experience in Hungary "solely through the warped prism of anti-Semitism rather than its much more complex, and healthy, reality."

A timely and important new book puts contemporary Hungarian anti-Semitism into perspective. Based on studies carried out since the early 1990s, "The Stranger at Hand: Antisemitic Prejudices in Post-Communist Hungary" is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the scope and impact of the phenomenon. It’s just too bad that its $131 price tag will put it out of reach of many potential readers. Written by Andras Kovacs, a sociologist at Budapest's Central European University who has devoted decades to tracking both the development of anti-Semitism and the development of Jewish life and identity here, the book presents a highly complex and sometimes contradictory picture. A large part of Hungarian society, both Jewish and non-Jewish, is convinced that anti-Semitism has increased in Hungary since the fall of communism, Kovacs writes. "What is said on the street, written in newspapers, and heard on the radio can and does give rise to concern," he writes. “Are the fears legitimate?" The answer, he told JTA in an interview, is a mix of yes, no and maybe.

Jobbik, with its anti-Semitic rhetoric and virulently anti-Roma, or Gypsy, political platform, won nearly 17 percent of the vote in April elections and entered Parliament as Hungary's third-largest party. But recent evidence shows that it has been losing support amid divisive internal squabbles, and newly imposed legal measures have clamped down hard on its once-feared paramilitary wing, the Hungarian Guard. Still, Jobbik did not emerge from thin air, and Kovacs's book traces the evolution of several anti-Semitic trends against a shifting background of political and social change.

He identifies three main types of anti-Semitism in Hungary. The first is "classic" anti-Jewish prejudice, based on social and religious stereotypes that date back centuries and were kept alive, if suppressed, under communism. The second occurs when anti-Semitism becomes a sort of "language and culture" that fosters a general anti-Semitic worldview. The third is political anti-Semitism, "where political activists discover that they can mobilize certain social groups by using anti-Semitic slogans to achieve their own goals."

Kovacs' research shows the recent growth in anti-Semitism to be qualitative rather than quantitative. Surveys show that 10 to 15 percent of Hungarians are hard-core anti-Semites, while another 25 percent nurtures anti-Jewish prejudices to some degree. Contrary to popular perception, Kovacs said, these figures "have increased to some extent but not dramatically over the past 17 years." What is different and much more alarming, according to Kovacs, is how the type and expression of anti-Semitism is changing within that proportion. For one thing, the percentage of political anti-Semites has grown. These political anti-Semites, he said, are "more urban, better educated and relatively younger" than they tended to be in the past.

Jobbik's key leaders, for example, are youthful, clean cut, and media and Internet-savvy -- factors that helped enhance their appeal ahead of the April vote. Related to this is the way hate speech among the general public has been emboldened by the open use of anti-Semitic and anti-Roma rhetoric by extreme right public figures. Kovacs calls this a "dangerous dynamic." He said young people in particular frequently seem to lose their inhibitions, and their use of slurs against Jews and Roma often goes unchecked by parents, teachers and other authority figures. "We know that people are much more cautious in expressing their prejudices if they think that it is not legitimate," Kovacs said. "But when they realize that so-called important people use this language openly, they feel they can use it as well. This is what we feel now in Budapest."

What follows is unclear. So far, Jobbik's anti-Jewish rhetoric seems aimed at creating a body of like-minded followers rather than serving as a rallying cry for concrete political action against Jews, according to Kovacs. But could the extreme right eventually elevate political anti-Semitism into a force with significant mainstream influence? Kovacs thinks it's unlikely, but ultimately, he writes in his book, it will depend on how Hungary's mainstream cultural and political leaders react to any attempts to "transform the prejudice that once affected the margins of Hungarian society into a language, culture and ideology."

He's no stranger to controvers and last night comedian Frankie Boyle was said to be unrepentant over his latest outburst.

Friends claim he has laughed off calls for him to be banned from TV following a deluge of complaints about racist language in his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights.

Many viewers were outraged after he used the P-word and n-word during a series of near-the-knuckle sketches.

One skit involved a woman dressed as Super Mario. She danced provocatively in front of the cameras before waving and saying: “Hello to P***’s everywhere.”

Then during his stand-up routine Boyle, 38, turned the subject to war.

He said: “Basically we are murdering a load of shepherds. What gets me is our callousness as a society when we read out our dead on the news first, because our lives are more important. Other people’s aren’t worth as much.”

Adopting a newsreader’s tone, he added: “A bomb went off in Kandahar today, killing two British servicemen, three UN relief workers and a whole bunch of P****.”

Later he said: “The Ministry of Defence? At least in the old days we were honest, it was The Ministry of War.”

In a posh phone voice he added: “Hello Ministry of War, department of n*****-bombing, how can I help?”

His remarks triggered a furious reaction. A spokesman for Show Racism the Red Card said: “We condemn Frankie Boyle’s use of racist terminology.

“Regardless of context and intention, the use of words such as these has the effect of normalising racist language.

“That is never acceptable. It is dehumanising and provides the foundations on which serious hate crimes are built.” MP John Whittingdale, chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, said: “There’s no question that these words are deeply offensive to many people.

“I think it’s entirely right that Ofcom should carry out an immediate investigation to decide whether this is acceptable.

“It’s very hard to justify – even in terms of political satire.”

On Digital spy forums, Dolly Stanford said: “He used to be funny and offensive, now he is just offensive. Shame.”

Another viewer said: “I liked him on Mock the Week, but this is just dreadful.”

Scots-born Boyle, who writes a column for the Sun, has already faced a barrage of criticism over earlier shows in which he made sexual jibes about Katie Price and her disabled son Harvey.

He also cracked sick jokes about cancer victims and mocked people with Aids.

Channel 4 – slammed three years ago for refusing to take responsibility for the Shilpa Shetty Celebrity Big Brother race row – seemed to be trying to tough it out again last night.

It pointed out that a warning was broadcast before Tuesday night’s show that it “contained very strong language and uncompromising adult content which some viewers will find offensive”.

But critics argue that Boyle’s comments breach TV rule 2.3 regarding “generally accepted standards”. It says any broadcast must justify in context any discriminatory language regarding race. Earlier this year Boyle had an on-stage run-in with the mother of a Down’s syndrome child. He spent five minutes of a stand-up show poking fun at sufferers and their parents by criticising their hair, clothing and voices.

He then turned on the audience, picking on a couple – Sharon and Keiron Smith – in the front row and accusing them of talking. Laughter turned to awkward silence when Mrs Smith told Boyle: “My daughter has Down’s syndrome and I’m very upset.”

Boyle retorted: “This is my last tour. I don’t give a f*** what people think.” Insiders at Channel 4 privately admitted the outspoken comedian has been testing executives’ patience.

But Shane Allen, the channel’s head of comedy commissioning, insisted: “We refute any suggestion we are endorsing or condoning racist language.

“This cutting edge comedy is clearly intended to ridicule and satirise the use of these words – Frankie Boyle was not endorsing them.”

- BOYLE also made a cruel jibe about missing Madeline McCann. Describing things you could say to change the atmosphere at a dinner party, he said: “We are all here – who’s looking after Madeleine?” A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann said: “It was deeply offensive.”

A high-level priest on the morning show of the largest television station in Greece blamed world Jewry for Greece's financial problems. The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim also blamed world Jewry for other ills in the country during his appearance on Mega TV. Mixing Freemasons with Jewish bankers such as Baron Rothschild and world Zionism, the Metropolite said that there is a conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy. He also accused international Zionism of trying to destroy the family unit by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages.

Thirteen minutes into the program the Greek host asked the Metropolite, "Why do you disagree with Hitler's policies? If they are doing all this, wasn't he right in burning them?" The Metropolite answered, "Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire."

Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization," the Metropolite also said. The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim is not the only Greek priest with such extreme ideas, as Salonika's Metropolite Anthimos also has preached similar ideas from his pulpit. "Watching and listening to the program, I felt disgust hearing the Metropolite of Piraeus expressing himself like that against world Zionism, and shamelessly saying that Hitler with the help of Jewish bankers did what he did," said Benjamin Albala, president of the Athens Jewish community.

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

A racist who launched a tirade of "utterly abhorrent" abuse at two reporters posing as a married Asian couple for a TV documentary has been told he deserved every day of his jail term.

Sean Ganderton, 23, "bullied and threatened" journalists Amil Khan and Tamanna Rahman as they went undercover in Southmead to film an episode of the BBC's Panorama programme.

Ganderton was jailed for two years at Bristol Crown Court in May after admitting racially aggravated harassment.

Yesterday the 23-year-old, who lived in Trowbridge Road, Southmead, before he was jailed, tried to challenge his sentence at London's Criminal Appeal Court, with lawyers arguing it was "too long" for his crime. But the appeal was dismissed by three judges, who said the sentence was "not excessive".

Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, sitting with Lord Justice Leveson and Mr Justice King, told the court the reporters who went to live in Ringwood Crescent between June and August last year secretly filmed material for the programme, entitled Panorama Undercover: Hate on the Doorstep, which was broadcast last October.

During that time, they were subjected to a barrage of racial insults, abuse and threatening behaviour from Ganderton and others.

The court heard on one occasion, Ganderton told Mr Khan he should be walking in the road, because then it would be "bye bye Paki", and punched him in the head.

Miss Rahman was also subjected to abuse, followed in the street and Ganderton threatened to cut her throat.

In a victim impact statement which was read to the court, she said she found the experience "distressing" and was stunned that Ganderton and others seemed to find it "amusing". She also said she "felt sorry" for other people who might have to face the same kind of treatment.

Sentencing him at Bristol Crown Court in June, Judge Michael Roach said Ganderton's behaviour was "utterly abhorrent", and that he had "bullied and threatened" the victims in a "cowardly way".

His lawyers argued his jail term was too long, saying the judge did not take enough account of the fact it was his first offence, his admission of guilt, or the fact he was of "low intelligence".

But, dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said the sentence was "not even arguably excessive" for a crime of this nature.

Another man, 18-year-old Martin Durnell, of Ringwood Crescent, was sentenced to 21 months' youth custody alongside Ganderton in June. He was not before the court to appeal against his sentence yesterday.

Cambridgeshire Police received two complaints after Mr Singh, an unofficial leader and spokesman for the EDL, gave a speech during the EDL’s two-hour protest in the city on Saturday, December 11.

Mr Singh was addressing around 1,000 EDL supporters and hundreds of onlooking members of the public during his speech, which was delivered outside Peterborough Magistrates’ Court and has since been uploaded onto YouTube.

A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Police said: “A 28-year-old man from Nottingham was arrested on suspicion of intentionally causing religiously aggravated harassment alarm or distress, under section four of the public order act 1986.

“He was questioned in Nottingham and has now been bailed.

“Police are investigating whether any further criminal offences were committed during protests in Peterborough.

“The arrested man will return to a police station in Cambridgeshire in February.”

The EDL held its protest claiming to be against Islamic extremism and its perceived rise in England.

The protesters went from outside the Peterborough United Football Ground, in London Road, to Peterborough Magistrates’ Court in Lower Bridge Street, where they gathered for a static protest and were addressed by Mr Singh.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the other unofficial leader of the EDL, confirmed that Mr Singh had been arrested.

Mr Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, said: “Guramit was arrested in the morning.

“The EDL are fully behind him and we don’t think there was anything wrong with his speech.

“It doesn’t surprise me that he has been arrested but it does disappoint me.”

The EDL’s decision to come to Peterborough to march and protest sparked the biggest policing operation in the history of the city.

Around 1,000 officers from 18 forces across the country were drafted in to police the EDL march as well as the counter demonstration which was organised by Peterborough Trades Union Council.

The operation cost Cambridgeshire Police an estimated £750,000 to pay overtime and draft extra officers in for the day. It resulted in 10 arrests on the day.

Police investigations are ongoing following the marches and officers have asked anyone with information to contact them on 0345 456 4564 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Police in Germany staged nationwide raids Tuesday on members of a far-right group suspected of trying to organise a camp to train young extremists, seizing neo-Nazi material.

Authorities carried out dawn raids in five cities on members of the "Young Nationalist Democrats" (JN), whose activities and slogans bear "clear parallels" to the banned neo-Nazi organisation HDJ, police said. They searched apartments in Oranienburg, Ludwigshafen, Bad Dürkheim, Heidelberg and Osnabrück.

"Various blatantly right-wing extremist documents belonging to IG Fahrt & Lager were found during the searches," the police said in a statement. "The searches were intended to stop the upcoming national year-end camp."

The HDJ, whose names translates as "German Youth Loyal to the Homeland," ran Hitler Youth-style camps teaching children as young as six that foreigners and Jews were a threat to the nation. Authorities banned the group in March 2009.

The state Office for Criminal Investigation in Hannover warned there was a danger that the JN would break laws at their planned get-together, including incitement to racial hatred and wearing banned uniforms.

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

An Ecuadorian man was hospitalized following a vicious neo-Nazi attack in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday. The unidentified 24-year victim was severely injured as he was waiting at a tramway stop early Saturday morning. The three assailants first insulted the Ecuadorian national and then beat him up, breaking his nose and inflicting multiple bruises on his body. Two female companions of the victim from Mexico and Germany were also attacked by the neo-Nazi thugs as they tried to protect their friend. The Mexican woman was slightly injured in the assault, according to the report. Police managed to arrest all three assailants, ages 18, 21 and 23.

The neo-Nazi movement is especially strong in formerly communist East Germany where foreigners are scapegoated for the worsening economic situation and high unemployment rate. Germany continues to be plagued by racially motivated attacks in recent years. Neo-Nazis and far-right extremists have committed more than 11,0000 acts of crimes during the first nine months of this year. The overall number of recorded far-right crimes is expected to surge further since many victims have yet to report to police. At least of 465 people were injured in far-right attacks and police arrested 246 in connection with these assaults. Only seven people were detained pending trial.

At least 137 people have reportedly been killed since Germany's reunification in 1990 as a result of neo-Nazi and other far-right violent acts. The number of fatalities due to far-right violence is three times as high as previously reported by police and the German government which has tried to downplay the threat of neo-Nazi violence, according to press reports. The German government has been under fire for not really cracking down on far-right violence which is targeting mostly foreigners and leftist activists.

Young neo-Nazis feel more and more emboldened to commit hate crimes, knowing that police won't charge them with an offense. Most of the suspects implicated in far-right crimes are juveniles. Hate crime experts and sociologists have repeatedly stressed Germany's political leadership lacked a clear, effective strategy and a real political will to combat neo-Nazi crimes.

A 38-year-old Swedish man suspected of a year-long shooting spree against immigrants is now suspected of two more murders and five more murder attempts, a prosecutor said Monday.

The suspect, who media have identified as Peter Mangs, was remanded in custody in early November, facing one charge of murder and five charges of attempted murder. Two other murder attempts were since attributed to him.

On Monday, prosecutor Solveig Wollstad in Malmoe told news agency TT that two men of foreign origin killed in 2003 -- a 23-year-old shot on his way to work and a 66-year-old found dead at home -- were possibly murdered by the suspect.

He is now also suspected of five new murder attempts from 2006 to this year, she said.
The suspicions "are sufficient for me to remand him in custody for credible motives," Wollstad told TT.
The man was arrested early November following weeks of a police manhunt for a sniper as shootings targeting immigrants intensified.

He had a licence for two weapons and was described as a loner.

The incidents in Malmoe, Sweden's third largest city, bore chilling similarity to the case of a gunman who targeted immigrants in Stockholm in the early 1990s, dubbed "Laserman".

The "Laserman", John Ausonius, shot 11 people of immigrant origin, killing one, around Stockholm from August 1991 to January 1992.

Ausonius, who got his nickname by initially using a rifle equipped with a laser sight, was jailed for life in 1994.

Monday, 20 December 2010

To prevent new racist violence in Russia, the police have arrested more than 1,500 people. About 500 participants in a right-wing demonstration have been taken in custody in Moscow on Saturday, and a further 800 persons as a preventive measure, police said. In the last days have nationalists repeatedly attacked Russian citizens or immigrants from the Caucasus and other countries.

The police had prevented "unauthorized meetings" in Moscow and Moscow region, told Yevgenij Gildejov, spokesman for the regional police, to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. One of the preventive measures was the arrest of 808 people, he said. Gildejow did not tell how many nationalists and how people with Caucasian origin have been taken in the actions.

About 500 nationalists gathered on Saturday near the TV station Ostankino. They shouted slogans like "Russia for Russians". Hundreds of policemen were deployed there. Almost all participants in the demonstration were arrested, said Moscow police spokesman Viktor Birjukow. Most protesters were underage youth.

Also in southwestern Russia, nationalists were arrested. Russian media reported from Volgograd 150 arrests and 100 from the industrial city of Samara. Already on Wednesday, approximately one thousand people were arrested for fear of clashes between ultra-nationalists and immigrants.

In recent days, young Russian ultra-nationalists repeatedly took part in violent clashes with young pepole of Caucasian origin. The clashes were triggered by the death of a Russian football fan which was killed in a fight with a group of people from the Caucasus.

Last Sunday a man from a former Soviet Republic was murdered - investigators suspect three young Russian extremists, among them a 14-year-old boy. He has already confessed to having stabbed the victim, the news agency Interfax reports, citing sources within the security apparatus. According to media reports, in Moscow and Moscow region another man from a former Soviet Republic was stabbed on Saturday and a Vietnames citizen was brutally beaten.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the violence on Saturday on Russian television a "worrying sign" but stressed that the young ultra-nationalists were not a "lost generation." Putin said Thursday during a question program on television that authorities want to proceed "hard against any form of extremism". (Source: russland.RU - Internet Zeitung)

Church leaders want to reclaim St George’s Day from the far right – with a street parade led by a black puppet of England’s patron saint.

Clergy at Manchester Cathedral believe the BNP and English Defence League have ‘hijacked’ the religious festival.

And they plan to fight back with a festival of puppets and poets on Sunday, May 8.

A Catalan-style procession will snake through the city, with jazz music and giant versions of George and the dragon, led by a puppet inspired by a painting in the cathedral by contemporary artist Mark Cazalet.

The altarpiece, created in 2001, depicts the saint as a young black man cutting free the restraints of a pitiful dragon.

The puppets are being built by homeless people who use the Booth Centre charity, linked to the cathedral.

The day will include a reading by Andrew Motion, the former Poet Laureate, of a specially-commissioned work.

The carnival is also inspired by epic Elizabethan poem The Faerie Queene, which re-tells St George’s legend.

Church leaders said the idea was to show English nationalism should be about ‘tolerance and opening up to people’ – and not stirring up racial division.

Canon Andrew Shanks, from the cathedral, said he and other churchmen wanted to help ‘rebrand’ St George’s Day.

He said: “I remember the BNP had a big rally in one of the squares in Manchester a couple of years ago.

“It felt very ugly. There were all these St George’s flags – and the same flag was on our tower.

“There is a war going on about the flag and the meaning of it and we are doing our damnedest to interpret it our way.”

Canon Shanks said the church’s ‘challenging’ painting of St George in a housing estate is about ‘unlocking passion for urban renewal’. He said: “We have taken that as inspiration.”

Anglican vicars face an unusual problem next year as St George’s Day – traditionally April 23 – will clash with Easter Saturday.

Many parishes are opting to mark St George’s Day in May instead.

An English hero with true global appeal

Despite being England’s patron saint, St George was actually born in Turkey and lived in Palestine.

Little is known for sure about his life, but according to myth he became a Roman soldier and was beheaded for his Christian beliefs in 303 AD.

Revered throughout the Christian church, he is also patron saint of Georgia, Malta and Portugal, as well as soldiers, farm workers, lepers and the modern Scout movement.

Although far-right English groups have attempted to adopt him as a symbol, it is thought he was black and of Middle Eastern descent.

The most famous myth about him - that he killed a dragon while riding a white horse - probably developed in the 14th Century.

A Nazi memorabilia collector was sentenced to seven years in prison for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti on headstones at a Jewish cemetery.

Polish national Mariusz Wdziekonski, 25, was given the maximum sentence in a Chicago court for desecrating 67 graves with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti at a Jewish cemetery in Chicago in January 2008. He was convicted earlier this month.

"You wanted to inflict your hatred. You wanted to inflict your pain. You brought shame to your family," Cook County Circuit Judge Larry Axelrood said Dec. 17 before handing down the sentence.

Wdziekonski, who entered the United States in 2004 and has admitted to being a collector of Nazi memorabilia, has been imprisoned for three years and could be eligible for early release in a few months. He also could be deported, according to reports.

Supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) are facing potential embarrassment after a database containing their personal details was hacked into.

Police are believed to be investigating the security breach, which also included the far-Right groups’s payment system being illegally accessed.

Amid fears of violence toward members, the EDL said it will support vulnerable people. They also urged members to change their online shopping details after concerns were raised that they would be published on the internet.

Officials were forced to email supporters after the incident, which is understood to have occurred in recent days, apologising for the “attack”.

It remains unclear who was behind the hacking incident and whether it was a politically motivated attack or a party member with a grudge against the group. The EDL did not disclose to supporters which police force was investigating the breach.

In their email to supporters, officials confirmed that hackers had accessed their donor lists and the far right group’s payments systems, exposing customers who buy merchandise.

“As you may have become aware the English Defence League clothing site was recently attacked,” read the email, seen by The Daily Telegraph.

“This attack took two forms, firstly member’s names and addresses were stolen from the donation database (and) secondly the details of members purchasing items from the clothing site.

“The EDL would like to apologise for this security leak. The leadership is doing everything they can to understand how this occurred so it can never happen again.”

The email confirmed that officials had contacted police.

“If, as an affected member you are concerned for your safety, contact the police,” they said.

“With regards to the criminal action against the EDL, the leadership is working with the police and it is being taken extremely seriously.

“There is currently an on going investigation and evidence is being collected.”

The breach comes days after the party was embroiled in controversy after asking American preacher Pastor Terry Jones to attend a demonstration in Britain.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, had faced calls to bar Mr Jones from entering the country after he was reportedly invited to address the EDL at a rally in Luton in February.

The preacher sparked outrage when he announced plans by his Florida-based church to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America.

The preacher said he would fight moves to ban him from coming to Britain, insisting he would be bringing a ''positive message''.

But the EDL later claimed it had not invited Mr Jones to speak at the event but he had approached them and they agreed in principle.

The weekend’s incident is similar to a security breach involving the far-right BNP in 2008, where the names, addresses and contact details of some 10,000 of its members were published online.

The list, which included details of some members' jobs, was reported to include serving and former police officers as well as members of the armed forces.

He said both men travelled with the group to foment disorder and gave them a 10-year Asbo to stop them taking part in or controlling any protest more than 10 miles away from Birmingham city centre.

They have also been banned from distributing any material for the group or encouraging others to attend protests outside the city.

Det Con Andy Haworth, of the National Domestic Extremism Unit, said: "While the defence leagues are entitled to protest, violence has been a persistent feature of their demonstrations, and we hope the success of today's application will prevent that violence."

Pc Mike Ellis, of Thames Valley Police, said: "This is a clear signal to those who would use violence and disorder to further their extreme and racist views, to intimidate and create fear within minority communities."

A government bill proposes prison sentences of up to four years for hate crimes. The toughest sentences can be imposed on aggravated incitement against a sector of the population - such as urging people to commit murder or genocide. The government wants to add a separate category of aggravated hate crime to the criminal code. The proposal is part of a package of legislation that is going before Parliament on Friday, aimed at clamping down on crimes against ethnic groups, as well as other population groups, such as sexual minorities. In crimes of incitement, the hate crime category would include acts which are motivated by a victim’s ethnicity, religious or other conviction, sexual orientation, disability, as well as similar factors. The emphasis is that the punishments would apply to actual crimes motivated by hate, and not mere acts of racism. In addition to actual human beings, a “legal person”, such as an association or group, could also be held responsible for crimes of incitement against an ethnic group, illegal threats, or aggravated slander or libel.

Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green) emphasised on Thursday that the bill is not intended to restrict free speech on socially important issues. She said that it will continue to be legal to voice severe criticism of immigration or policy towards foreigners, and against those responsible for such policies. The bill is also not aimed at placing restrictions on research or science. What would be punishable would be making threats, slander, and vilification, either on paper or online. Punishable acts would include displaying or spreading messages that endorse violence or discrimination against a group. Criminal hate speech would also include comparing people with animals, or labelling entire groups as criminals or of lesser value. The new bill would add a mention of displaying illegal material as a crime itself. At present, the law mentions “distribution”. The change was prompted by the Internet. If the bill passes into law, it will no longer be possible to split hairs about who is actually responsible for what appears on a web page. Ministry official Mirja Salonen says that the clause would apply to someone who deliberately allows or urges another person to post hate messages on his or her website or Facebook page, for instance, and fails to remove them when called upon to do so.

An alleged organizer of recent race-hate riots in downtown Moscow who is suspected of killing a Kyrgyz migrant was arrested on Friday along with three other rioters, a Moscow court announced.

Ilya Kubrakov is believed to be a ringleader of last Saturday's riots on Manezh Square next to the Kremlin and could face life in prison over the stabbing to death of a man from Kyrgyzstan in southern Moscow. His body was found on Sunday.

Court spokesman Oleg Shassayev said all four detainees could be kept in pretrial detention until February 12, adding that if the probe into their crimes is not completed by that time, investigators could ask for their detention to be extended.

In Moscow, a 5,000-strong crowd of nationalists and football hooligans clashed with police at central Manezh Square on Saturday. The fans were protesting police negligence over the death of Yegor Sviridov, 28, who was killed in a brawl with migrants from Russia's North Caucasus region earlier in November.

The clash was followed on Wednesday by further disturbances as ethnic Russians and internal migrants gathered for a confrontation near a major train terminus in Moscow. Race-hate riots also occurred in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities.

President Dmitry Medvedev blamed the outbreak of race-hate violence on investigators who released suspects in the death of Sviridov. He called on Russia's police and prosecutors to take measures to punish all those responsible for the crime.

A spate of race-hate attacks since the weekend and reports of more clashes to come have left the Russian capital on edge.

The nationalist movement ELAM (National People’s Front) is seeking to establish itself as a political party with a view to running in elections – perhaps even the coming parliamentary elections next May. As reported by Politis yesterday, ELAM has filed an application with the Interior Ministry so that its property and assets are deemed tax-free – an exemption which political parties are entitled to. The application was filed in late November. Lazaros Savvides, permanent secretary of the Interior Ministry, said a decision on the application should be made by next week. “If it satisfies all the criteria, there is no reason why it should not be accepted,” Savvides told the Mail. The above application is a formality and is separate from registering as a political party, for which other requirements apply – such as having an office in all the major towns or conducting operations in the various districts. The application was filed on ELAM’s behalf by European Party MP Rikkos Erotokritou in his capacity as a lawyer.

Politis yesterday attributed to Erotokritou suspicious motives, and in a double-entendre wondered how a member of one party could be promoting the establishment of a potentially rival political grouping. Later yesterday, the deputy released a statement through his law firm, stating he had no political relation whatsoever to ELAM and that his involvement in no way indicated that he shared the group’s views. Hitting back, he claimed the paper was distorting facts and urged the publication to set the record straight. Erotokritou attached to the statement a copy of an agreement with the Kurdistan Limassol District Office. The MP said his business association with Kurdish immigrants was proof enough that he did not see eye to eye with ELAM. Regardless of whether the application is approved or not, ELAM can still declare itself a party and run as such in elections – which is precisely what the movement plans to do. “We aim to run as a party in the upcoming parliamentary elections,” said Michalis Drakos, a member of ELAM’s Central Committee.

To win a seat in parliament, a candidate must garner 1/56 – or around 1.8 per cent – of the popular vote. ELAM actually ran in the last European elections, winning 663 votes, or 0.22 per cent. The self-professed nationalists, whose members don black T-shirts in demonstrations, deny they are a racist or chauvinist movement. They say they are against illegal immigrants, including asylum seekers living here on benefits paid for by taxpayers – but insist they have nothing against legal aliens. Besides advocating a ‘Greek Cyprus’, the outfit wants all illegal immigrants (“many of whom pose as asylum seekers”) on the island to be summarily deported. “Yes, we are worried about the demographics of our country. Today, there are currently some 200,000 foreigners living here,” Drakos said, temporarily blurring the distinction between legally and illegally residing foreigners. “We have nothing against people who reside here legally. They will stay here, and when their residency expires, they will be on their way back to their countries,” he noted.

ELAM are against a federation-based solution to the Cyprus problem, and want the crossing points with the north shut. Their bid to break into the mainstream of politics is linked to a desire to shed their image as a fringe extremist outfit. “We are here to stay…not just to emerge whenever there are elections,” said Drakos, explaining ELAM’s intended transformation into a fully-fledged party. “Our goal is to acquire a political role, and to provide a platform to people who disagree with conventional ideas – such as a federal solution for Cyprus – but who have nowhere to turn to now. “We want to be taken seriously,” added Drakos. Established in July 2008, the group currently counts some 800 registered members, and has offices in all the major towns, as well as an associated student organisation in Athens. In the municipal elections in Greece last November, the ultra-nationalist Greek group known as ‘Chrysi Avgi’ got a member elected to the Athens municipality.

According to the charter of ‘Chrysi Avgi’, “only Aryans by blood and Greeks by descent can be candidate members.” The charter also puts the leader in total control of the party, and formalises the use of the Roman salute for party members. Their emblem’s colour and design is eerily reminiscent of the Nazi swastika. ELAM member Petros Georgiou said their outfit has “friendly relations” with a number of nationalist parties in other countries, including ‘Chrysi Avgi’ in Greece and Italy’s Forza Nuova, as well as similar groups in Germany and Russia. Most of their members come from low-income groups, but ELAM’s ranks include people from all walks of life, including doctors and lawyers. And funding comes “from our own pockets,” Georgiou said.

Friday, 17 December 2010

The North Rhine-Westphalian city of Dülmen struck Adolf Hitler from its list of honorary citizens on Thursday. But the Nazi dictator still retains similar recognition in towns across Germany, experts say.

After two previous attempts failed, the Dülmen city council plans to remove Hitler, the town’s fifth honorary citizen, from the list posthumously – a move historians say is long overdue.

On April 6, 1933 city officials voted unanimously to honour the Nazi leader.

Centre-left Social Democratic council group leader Waltraud Bednarz wrote in her September proposal to remove Hitler from the list that the action was not necessary, but “more that appropriate.”

Honorary citizens lose their title at death, but Bednarz argued that the names of other former recipients of the title should not be tarnished by association.

“We don’t want to put the others in a row with Hitler and want to finally remove this honorary citizenship,” she said.

The town is not alone in expunging the embarrassing detail from their records.

Historians estimate that Hitler was named an honorary citizen of about 4,000 German communities before his death, but there are no official figures on how many towns and cities have actually rescinded the title.

This is due to the fact that many official records were destroyed during World War II, said historian Thomas Schaarschmidt from the Potsdam centre for historic research (ZZF).

But even in the cities where records survived, it took decades for them to countermand the honour, he said.

Hitler wasn’t taken off Düsseldorf’s list until 2000. And in Bad Doberan, where the 2007 G8 summit was held at Heiligendamm, officials didn’t get around it until shortly before the event began. The city of Gladbeck near Münster just took care of it last week.

“Most of the cancellations go back to the 1990s,” Schaarschmidt explained, though some cities, such as Emmerich, did have war criminals removed as early as 1946.

“But there were decisions to leave Hitler on the lists for historical reasons,” Schaarschmidt added, explaining that some cities wanted a record of how they had been mired in Nazi politics.

But Dülmen’s move is long overdue, he said, calling it an important “symbolic act.”

John Abraham Godson, a Polish citizen born and raised in Nigeria, has been sworn in as the first black member of Poland's parliament. Mr Godson had served as a councillor in the city of Lodz before taking up a parliamentary seat, vacated by a party colleague after local elections. His entry into parliament has created a media stir in the mainly white country. He came to Poland in the 1990s, opening an English-language school and working as a pastor in a Protestant church. He has since married a Polish woman and the couple have four children.

Beaten up twice
A member of the centre-right Civic Platform party, he was appointed to the seat vacated by party colleague Hanna Zdanowskaafter after she became mayor of Lodz. It is still quite rare to see black people even in the Polish capital Warsaw, Poland's most cosmopolitan city, the BBC's Adam Easton reports. Racism is still a problem in Poland, where it is not uncommon for well-educated people to make racist jokes, our correspondent says. Mr Godson was beaten up twice in the early 1990s but he says attitudes to black people in Poland are changing for the better, particularly since the country joined the EU six years ago. Speaking earlier to Polish radio, Mr Godson said: "I am from Lodz, I will live here, I want to die here and I want to be buried here."

Convicted killer John Ditullio Jr. returned to court today to learn his sentence.

He dressed in black and refused to allow the application of makeup to cover his offensive tattoos, something that was done each day during his trial.

"I wanted the jury to see me ," he said.

Despite seeing the swastika and the expletive tattooed on Ditullio's neck, the panel of six men and six women deliberated for only about 30 minutes before sparing him a death sentence.

Instead, they recommended he serve life in prison for the 2006 murder of 17-year-old Kristofer King. Pasco Circuit Judge Michael Andrews accepted the sentence, adding a concurrent 15 years behind bars for the attempted murder of Patricia Wells.

King and Wells were attacked inside Wells' Teak Street mobile home. Wells was severely cut on her hands, arms and face but escaped. King, a friend of Wells' son, died of stab wounds to his head.

Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis contended the crime was motivated by Ditullio's white supremacist beliefs and his association with a neo-Nazi group that congregated at a mobile home next door to Wells.

Halkitis said Wells was attacked because she was friends with a black man and King because he was gay.

The eight-day retrial ended Wednesday with the jury finding Ditullio guilty of first-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. Ditullio's first trial a year ago ended in a hung jury, with the panel leaning 10-2 toward acquittal.

Ditullio, 24, didn't seem all that bent on avoiding a death penalty. Aside from revealing his tattoos, he didn't allow his attorneys to present evidence of his tough upbringing and mental illness, evidence typically used to help defendants avoid death sentences.

Ditullio also seemed to take a casual attitude when he addressed the jury.

"I'm not going to beg you people for my life or my death," he said. "Do what you do, OK? Life in Florida is death in Florida. But the people that just sat up here and testified that they love me and that they want to be part of my life, that's who I ask you to render your verdict on. Not me."

Ditullio's grandmother, Edith Ditullio, and sister, Cynthia Lewandowski, told the jury they loved him and would continue a relationship with him if he went to prison for life.

Morris Standifer and Adam Jones, convicted felons serving lengthy prison terms, testified Ditullio was their friend when they were in the Land O' Lakes Jail.

Their friendships came despite the fact they are black and Ditullio belonged to a neo-Nazi group.

"I've never heard no racial comments come out of his mouth, ever," Jones said.

Defense attorney Danny Hernandez said jurors should spare his client because he was only 20 at the time of the crime and had no prior felony convictions.

The attack happened just after midnight on March 23, 2006, when a man wearing a gas mask barged into Wells' trailer. He slashed Wells and stabbed King, who was there using a computer.

At trial, defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand argued that Shawn Plott, another member of the neo-Nazi group, committed the stabbings.

Brunvand pointed to Wells' description of her attacker as having blond hair: Plott has blond hair; Ditullio has dark brown hair.

Brunvand also argued that Wells varied on the attacker's height.

Wells' blood was found on the left boot Ditullio was wearing that night. The defense argued that blood taken from the boot should be disregarded because it became contaminated during testing.

But testimony indicated the sample that contained Wells' DNA was not contaminated.

King's mother, Charlene Bricken, wasn't swayed by the defense case. She addressed Ditullio before he was sentenced.

"You know, John, you talked so much about being young and how influenced you were," Bricken said. "But what about Kris, who was 17 years old and 20 days? What chance did he have? And why did you have the right to take his life, or anybody's?

Thursday, 16 December 2010

The Canadian Human Rights Commission is appealing a Federal Court ruling that a white supremacist who posted hate propaganda on the Internet was not in contempt of the court.

The commission says the judge erred in determining that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal did not make it sufficiently clear that Terry Tremaine was ordered to remove hateful material from a website.

Federal Court Judge Sean Harrington's ruling on Nov. 29 noted that Tremaine has a particular hatred for blacks, First Nations people and Jews.

Tremaine argued that the tribunal failed to immediately notify him that a February 2007 order for him to stop communicating his racist views on the Internet had been registered with the court, and Harrington agreed.

The human rights commission did prove that Tremaine deliberately flaunted that order.

The former University of Saskatchewan math lecturer has been charged criminally in that province for disseminating hate propaganda.

A white supremacist group has joined in a boycott of Thor because the Marvel Studios film cast a black actor as the Norse god Heimdall, the sentry of Asgard.

The Missouri-based Council of Conservative Citizens, labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, writes that Marvel has “[declared] war on North mythology” by giving the pantheon “an insulting multi-cultural make-over” in the form of Idris Elba, the English actor known for his roles in The Wire, The Losers and The Office.

“It’s not enough that Marvel attacks conservatives values,” the post states, “now mythological Gods must be re-invented with black skin.” It directs visitors to Boycott Thor, whose subhead reads, “Keep social engineering out of European mythology.” It’s unclear whether the Council of Conservative Citizens is actually involved with the site, or simply subscribes to the ideology.

“It well known that Marvel is a company that advocates for left-wing ideologies and causes,” the boycott site insists. “Marvel front man Stan ‘Lee’ Lieber boasts of being a major financier of left-wing political candidates. Marvel has viciously attacked the TEA Party movement, conservatives, and European heritage. Now they have taken it one further, casting a black man as a Norse deity in their new movie Thor. Marvel has now inserted social engineering into European mythology.”

In an apparent attempt to strengthen its case against Marvel, the site also points to the Black Panther, which it describes as “explicit pro-black and the comics are viciously anti-white.”

So far, 133 people have “liked” Boycott Thor on Facebook. The handful of comments on the site are pretty much what you’d expect, with one person calling Thor “whiteaphobic crap,” and another characterizing Elba’s casting as “Just another way to keep rapping the club over the heads of good white people, everywhere.”

Elba waved off early criticisms, telling TV Times back in April, “Hang about, Thor’s mythical, right? Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his fingers. That’s OK, but the color of my skin is wrong? I was cast in Thor and I’m cast as a Nordic god. If you know anything about the Nords, they don’t look like me but there you go. I think that’s a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see multi-level casting. I think we will see that, and I think that’s good.”

German authorities hardened a crackdown on Islamic groups yesterday, raiding homes and schools that reportedly belong to adherents of fundamentalist Salafi Islam. German officials said the preemptive raids, conducted under German anti-Nazi laws of association, were aimed at uncovering unconstitutional or separatist acts and not part of an international terror hunt. The raids targeted the Islamic Cultural Center of Bremen, on the North Sea, along with a group calling itself Invitation to Paradise in two small northwest German cities. Invitation to Paradise's leader has called for sharia, or Islamic law, to prevail one day but has specifically opposed using violence to impose it. While some experts say police overreacted in conducting the raids, German officials have come under great pressure from local media and citizen groups to respond to some Muslim organizations that appear to resist joining mainstream German society. “These groups are a problem for integration, even maybe for radicalization, though not necessarily for violent jihad. They are very orthodox and like to be separate but are not preaching but usually condemning violence,” says Alexander Ritzmann, a former Berlin member of parliament now with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels. “The problem is that some jihadis in Germany from before identified themselves as Salafi.”

Germany has been on high alert for possible terror attacks since mid-November. The Reichstag parliament building was partially closed to tourists for two weeks following a phone call from a disaffected South Asian jihadist who warned that Islamic militant groups were planning to attack high-profile targets in the nation. Authorities said yesterday's raids were unrelated to the phone warning. The German Interior Ministry said it was investigating efforts by radicals to overthrow the government on theological Islamic grounds. In a statement issued Tuesday, the ministry said that, “For a well-fortified democracy, it is necessary and demanded, without waiting for the jihad to occur in the form of armed struggle, to take action against anti-constitutional organizations.” A leader of Invitation to Paradise, Pierre Vogel, has been a lightening rod in Germany for some time now. He's a German convert to Islam who appears on numerous TV shows to defend the concept of sharia.

Mr. Ritzmann, the former German parliamentarian, argues that the zeal of the German police should be more in line with the goals of German intelligence, which may be uneasy with high-profile raids that are designed to placate political pressure. “The police may make some of the popular leaders into martyrs if the state is now going after them," he says. "It means inside the mosque that everything the Islamic leaders say to them about not being accepted in German society appears to be true.” After a car bomb in Stockholm carried out by a disaffected Islamist from Iraq named Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, several German politicians called for tighter visa restrictions. After yesterday’s raids, other officials called for a quick and total ban on radical Islamic groups. German police say the raids were unrelated to the Stockholm incident.

The botched terrorist bombing in central Stockholm last weekend is being seized upon by Sweden's extreme right as an example of the dangers that multiculturalism and open immigration can have on the country.

The attack, which caused little damage, leaving only the perpetrator dead and two others with minor injuries, is now serving as political fodder for right-wing groups already hostile toward immigration and foreign cultures. The right is pointing to the bomber as a clear example of why Sweden should stop accepting more immigrants and promoting a multicultural society.

The National Democrats, a small, far-right party with a handful of seats on local government councils, have planned a rally on Sunday in Stockholm against multiculturalism and terrorism. The party said it had warned of terrorists coming to Sweden in the past, only to have the warnings fall on deaf ears.

“The bombings in Stockholm were not a coincidence but part of a frightening development that will affect us all,” read a statement posted on the group’s website. “The biggest tragedy with this first terrorist attack in central Stockholm is that it’s an indication of what is about to happen to our once-safe Swedish nation.”

Though terrorist attacks are nothing new to Europe, Sweden has long prided itself on remaining free from such violence while fielding troops abroad and hosting a growing Muslim population at home.

Omar Mustafa, president of the Islamic League in Sweden, said he fears the Saturday evening attack could undo the years of progress made by Muslims living in Sweden.

“We will lose the most after this attack,” he said. “This will not help the level of Islamophobia.”

The far right has seized upon the suicide bomber’s Middle Eastern roots and calls for violent jihad. The man, identified as 28-year-old Iraqi-born Swede Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, directed his ire toward Sweden’s military presence in Afghanistan and Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who drew an image of the prophet Muhammad’s head on a dog’s body in 2007.

In an emailed audio messages sent to Sweden’s national news agency and recorded in Arabic, English and Swedish, al-Abdaly also called upon the “hidden mujahedeen in Europe and, especially, in Sweden” to carry out more attacks.

“It’s now the time to strike even if you only have a knife to strike with,” he said, “and I do know that you have more than that.”

A larger and more-established political party entered the fray when William Petzall, a parliamentarian for the populist, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party, wrote on his Twitter account, “I hate to say it but what did we tell you?”

Petzall’s comments were echoed by Alexandra Brunell, secretary to the Sweden Democrats’ party leader Jimmie Akesson, who wrote Saturday night on her Twitter account, “Is it now that we can say we told you so?” She later backtracked, however, apologizing for the remark and its tone.

Speaking with the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, Akesson made it clear the Sweden Democrats would take up the issue in parliament. The party has long demanded halting the country’s flow of immigrants.

“Now we see an opening to get a debate and start taking this threat seriously,” Akesson told the newspaper.

The Sweden Democrats stunned the political establishment in September when the party garnered enough votes to enter parliament for the first time. Since the election, the group’s popularity has even slightly increased, according to a Dec. 8 opinion poll by the country's main statistics office, Statistics Sweden.

Observers said it is unsurprising that the Sweden Democrats would utilize the bombing for political gains. Given its past objection to the rise of Islam in Sweden, the party can now use the attack as a rallying point for its faithful and as a means to possibly recruit more into the fold.

“It’s a process of scapegoating. You have one person that represents a very radical interpretation of Islam. Then what the Sweden Democrats are trying to do is extrapolate that to all of Islam," said Cristian Norocel, a researcher at Stockholm University and Finland's University of Helsinki. "This plays on their line of reasoning.”

As for whether or not the Swedish electorate will listen to the far right's arguments, Norocel said that remains to be seen. Sweden has a moderate political tradition, and the country's mainstream political parties called for calm following the explosions while Sweden's Muslim associations condemned the bomber's actions and beliefs.

"This moment of pondering can be easily hijacked by Sweden Democrats," Norocel said, adding that the media must also be careful not to overhype the incident with excessive coverage.

Mustafa, of the Islam association, said Sweden needed to promote an open dialogue rather than the recriminations offered by far-right parties in order to prevent future attacks.

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

Police in Latvia were investigating Monday after a second incident of anti-Semitic vandalism in less than a week. A memorial to Zanis Lipke, a Latvian credited with saving more than 50 Jews from death during World War II, was daubed with paint in the early hours of Monday morning, police said. The memorial was quickly cleaned up by municipal authorities.

The incident came just days after 89 tombstones in the Jewish Cemetery in Riga were daubed with swastikas by vandals. Latvian Foreign Minister Girts Valdis Kristovskis was quick to condemn the latest incident, saying 'recurrent acts of vandalism' were unacceptable. Lipke, who died in 1987, was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the Holocaust memorial organization Yad Vashem. Nearly all of Riga's Jews were murdered during World War II by occupying Nazi forces assisted by local volunteers. Several Jewish organizations, including the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, have warned about high levels of anti-Semitism in the Baltic states.

The issue is put into sharp focus every year in Latvia on March 16, when an unofficial parade takes place in the Latvian capital commemorating members of the Latvian Waffen-SS. Of around 60,000 Jews in Latvia at the start of WWII, only 3,500 survived.

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, will contest the Oldham East and Saddleworth byelection, the far-right party confirmed today.

Griffin, who currently serves as MEP for the North West, is the latest candidate to confirm his bid to enter the race for the seat left empty by Labour's Phil Woolas.

Judges ordered a rerun of the constituency election after ruling last month at a specially convened court that Woolas had lied to win his seat in May by 103 votes, exploiting racial tensions in order to defeat Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins.

Watkins took Woolas to court under the rarely used section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, claiming that the outcome was influenced by Labour leaflets making false allegations in an effort to sway the white vote in the constituency by wrongly accusing Watkins of wooing Islamist extremists and of not condemning threats of violence.

Woolas was stripped of his seat and banned from standing for election for three years, in the first such judgment for 99 years. He was subsequently expelled by the Labour party and earlier this month failed in an appeal at the high court against the decision.

The Labour party is expected to move a writ in the new year confirming the byelection date. Oldham East is a three-way marginal and the election will see the Lib Dems and Conservatives fighting against each other at the polls for the first time since going into coalition together in May.

The Conservatives today announced that Kashif Ali, who came third in the constituency at the May 2010 election, will stand again.

At the weekend Labour selected Debbie Abrahams, while Watkins will stand again for the Lib Dems.

Griffin's decision to stand comes after a humiliating showing for his party at the general election, when the BNP failed to win a single parliamentary seat at the general election, despite fielding more than 300 candidates.

The BNP leader stood in Barking, where he came third after polling just 4,916 votes despite a sustained campaign in the constituency.

BNP candidate Alwyn Stott came fourth in Oldham East at the general election, with 5.7% of the vote.

The decision by the BNP to field its leader in the race comes on the day that the party came under the spotlight for breaking electoral law in 2008 by "failing to keep accounting records sufficient to explain, with reasonable accuracy, the financial position of the party at the time".

The Electoral Commission said the party was guilty of a "clear failure" to keep accurate financial records for 2008, adding that it was "frustrating" that it could not impose a penalty on the party because the law at the time did not allow it.